The present invention relates to reeling apparatus and particularly, but not exclusively to apparatus for reeling cable.
One known form of cable winding apparatus comprises two reels. When one reel is full, winding is automatically transferred to the other. So that various tests can be carried out on the wound cable, it is desirable for a reasonable length of the inner end of the cable to be brought out to the surface of the reel so that various tests can be carried out on the reeled cable. It is difficult to produce an inner end of sufficient length and also difficult to avoid damage to that inner end. An object of the invention is to mitigate or eliminate these disadvantages.
According to the present invention, there is provided apparatus for reeling an elongate object comprising first and second reeling stations, means at each station for winding cable delivered to the station on a reel disposed at that station, means for guiding the element to be wound to one or other of the stations, means for transferring the element from one station to the other when a sufficient length of element has been wound on a reel at the said one station and means at each station for generating a loop in the element at the beginning of winding at that station which provides an inner loose end.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the means at each station for generating a loop comprise an eccentric, which on rotation displaces the element being wound from the centre of rotation to create the loop. The eccentric includes a catcher or snagger to hold the element at changeover and a deflector which pushes the element onto the barrel of the reel being wound. The part of the element would around the eccentric then becomes the inner loose end. At the commencement of winding, directly after transfer from one reel to the other, changes of speed of element take place causing initial speed increase followed by speed decrease of the element. It is important that this slack does not effect the normal speed control provided by a conventional accumulator unit. A swinging arm is therefore provided to absorb these changes. This arm is itself provided with both spring and pneumatic position control means. Means, for example, pins or a strip, are provided for restraining ballooning of the element due to centrifugal force during changeover. At the end of winding on the reel after changeover, by rotating the eccentric relative to the reel, the inner end form may be laid on the external surface of the reel. To enable the eccentric to be rotated relative to the reel, a pin which normally locks both together is withdrawn and that catcher is opened to release the elements.